Palme d'Or

Golden Palm Palme d'Or
Location	Cannes
Country	France
Presented by	Festival International du Film de Cannes
First awarded	1955

Palme d'Or awarded to Apocalypse Now at the 1979 Cannes Film Festival

The Palme d'Or (French pronunciation: ​[palm(ə) dɔʁ]; English: Golden Palm) is the highest prize awarded at the Cannes Film Festival.^[1] It was introduced in 1955 by the organising committee. From 1939 to 1954, the highest prize was the Grand Prix du Festival International du Film.^[2] In 1964, it was replaced once again by the Grand Prix du Festival^[3] before being reintroduced in 1974.

History

The Commune of Cannes coat of arms

In 1954, the Jury of the Festival de Cannes suggested awarding an award titled the "Grand Prix of the International Film Festival" with a new design each year from a contemporary artist. At the end of 1954, the Festival's Board of Directors invited several jewellers to submit designs for a palm, in tribute to the coat of arms of the City of Cannes.^[4] The original design by the jeweller Lucienne Lazon had the bevelled lower extremity of the stalk forming a heart, and the pedestal a sculpture in terracotta by the artist Sébastien.

In 1955, the first Palme d'Or was awarded to Delbert Mann for Marty, and it remained the highest award until 1964, when copyright issues with the Palme led the Festival to return to the Grand Prix. In 1975 the Palme d'Or was reintroduced and has since remained the symbol of the Cannes Film Festival, awarded every year to the director of the Best Feature Film of the Official Competition, and presented in a case of pure red Morocco leather lined with white suede.

As of 2015, Jane Campion is the only female director to have won the Palme d'Or, for The Piano. However, in 2013 the actresses, Adèle Exarchopoulos and Léa Seydoux, were also awarded the Palme d'Or, as they received the award as the lead actors of Blue Is the Warmest Colour, alongside director Abdellatif Kechiche—the decision by the Steven Spielberg-headed jury was considered unorthodox. These choices were due to a Cannes policy that forbids the Palme d'Or-winning film from receiving any additional awards, thereby preventing the Jury from rewarding the film's two main actresses.^[5] According to Spielberg: "Had the casting been 3% wrong, it wouldn't have worked like it did for us".^[6]

Since its reintroduction, the prize has been redesigned several times. At the beginning of the 1980s, the rounded shape of the pedestal, bearing the palm, gradually transformed to become pyramidal in 1984. In 1992 Thierry de Bourqueney redesigned the Palme and its pedestal in hand-cut crystal. The current design, first presented in 1997, is by Caroline Scheufele from Chopard. A single piece of cut crystal forms a cushion for the 24-carat gold palm, which was hand-cast into a wax mould and presented in a case of blue Morocco leather.^[7]

The winner of the 2014 Palme d'Or, Winter Sleep—a Turkish film by Nuri Bilge Ceylan—occurred during the same year as the 100th anniversary of Turkish cinema. Upon receiving the award, Ceylan dedicated the prize to both the "young people" involved in the ongoing political unrest of Turkey and the workers who were killed in the Soma mine disaster, which occurred on the day prior to the commencement of the awards event.^[8]

Award winners

Grand Prix du Festival International du Film (1939–54)

Year	Film	Original Title	Director(s)	Nationality of Director (at time of film's release)
1939	Union Pacific*		Cecil B. DeMille	United States*
1946	The Turning Point	Velikij perelom / Великий перелом	Fridrikh Ermler	Soviet Union*
	Men Without Wings	Muži bez křídel	František Čáp	Czechoslovakia*
	The Last Chance	Die Letzte Chance	Leopold Lindtberg	Switzerland*
	Iris and the Lieutenant	Iris och löjtnantshjärta	Alf Sjöberg	Sweden*
	Portrait of Maria	María Candelaria	Emilio Fernández	Mexico*
	Rome, Open City	Roma, città aperta	Roberto Rossellini	Italy*
	Lowly City	Neecha Nagar / नीचा नगर	Chetan Anand	India*
	Brief Encounter		David Lean	United Kingdom*
	Pastoral Symphony	La symphonie pastorale	Jean Delannoy	France*
	The Lost Weekend		Billy Wilder	United States
	The Red Meadows	De røde enge	Bodil Ipsen and Lau Lauritzen, Jr.	Denmark*
1949	The Third Man		Carol Reed	United Kingdom
1951	Miss Julie	Fröken Julie	Alf Sjöberg	Sweden
	Miracle in Milan	Miracolo a Milano	Vittorio De Sica	Italy
1952	The Tragedy of Othello: The Moor of Venice		Orson Welles	United States
	Two Cents Worth of Hope	Due soldi di speranza	Renato Castellani	Italy
1953	The Wages of Fear	Le salaire de la peur	Henri-Georges Clouzot	France
1954	Gate of Hell	Jigokumon / 地獄門	Teinosuke Kinugasa	Japan*

• Note: The Palme d'Or for Union Pacific was awarded in retrospect at the 2002 festival. The festival's debut was to take place in 1939, but it was cancelled due to World War II. The organisers of the 2002 festival presented part of the original 1939 selection to a professional jury of six members. The films were: Goodbye Mr. Chips, La Piste du Nord, Lenin in 1918, The Four Feathers, The Wizard of Oz, Union Pacific, and Boefje.

Palme d'Or (1955–63)

Year	Film	Original Title	Director(s)	Nationality of Director (at time of film's release)
1955	Marty §		Delbert Mann	United States
1956	The Silent World	Le monde du silence	Jacques Cousteau and Louis Malle	France
1957	Friendly Persuasion		William Wyler	United States
1958	The Cranes Are Flying	Letyat zhuravli / Летят журавли	Mikhail Kalatozov	Soviet Union
1959	Black Orpheus §	Orfeu Negro	Marcel Camus	France
1960	The Sweet Life §	La dolce vita	Federico Fellini	Italy
1961	The Long Absence §	Une aussi longue absence	Henri Colpi	France
	Viridiana §		Luis Buñuel	Mexico
1962	Keeper of Promises §	O Pagador de Promessas	Anselmo Duarte	Brazil*
1963	The Leopard §	Il gattopardo	Luchino Visconti	Italy

Grand Prix du Festival International du Film (1964–74)

Year	Film	Original Title	Director(s)	Nationality of Director (at time of film's release)
1964	The Umbrellas of Cherbourg	Les parapluies de Cherbourg	Jacques Demy	France
1965	The Knack ...and How to Get It		Richard Lester	United Kingdom
1966	A Man and a Woman	Un homme et une femme	Claude Lelouch	France
	The Birds, the Bees and the Italians	Signore e signori	Pietro Germi	Italy
1967	Blowup		Michelangelo Antonioni	Italy
1968	No award this year because of the May 1968 events in France.	N/A	N/A	N/A
1969	If....		Lindsay Anderson	United Kingdom
1970	MASH		Robert Altman	United States
1971	The Go-Between		Joseph Losey	United Kingdom
1972	The Working Class Goes to Heaven §	La classe operaia va in paradiso	Elio Petri	Italy
	The Mattei Affair §	Il caso Mattei	Francesco Rosi	Italy
1973	The Hireling		Alan Bridges	United Kingdom
	Scarecrow		Jerry Schatzberg	United States
1974	The Conversation		Francis Ford Coppola	United States

Palme d'Or (1975–present)

Year	Film	Original Title	Director(s)	Nationality of Director (at time of film's release)
1975	Chronicle of the Years of Fire	Chronique des années de braise	Mohammed Lakhdar-Hamina	Algeria*
1976	Taxi Driver		Martin Scorsese	United States
1977	Padre Padrone		Paolo and Vittorio Taviani	Italy
1978	The Tree of Wooden Clogs §	L'albero degli zoccoli	Ermanno Olmi	Italy
1979	Apocalypse Now		Francis Ford Coppola	United States
	The Tin Drum	Die Blechtrommel	Volker Schlöndorff	West Germany*
1980	All That Jazz		Bob Fosse	United States
	Kagemusha	Kagemusha / 影武者	Akira Kurosawa	Japan
1981	Man of Iron	Człowiek z żelaza	Andrzej Wajda	Poland*
1982	Missing §		Costa-Gavras	Greece*
	The Way §	Yol	Yılmaz Güney and Şerif Gören	Turkey*
1983	The Ballad of Narayama	Narayama bushikō / 楢山節考	Shohei Imamura	Japan
1984	Paris, Texas §		Wim Wenders	West Germany
1985	When Father Was Away on Business §	Otac na službenom putu / Отац на службеном путу	Emir Kusturica	Yugoslavia*
1986	The Mission		Roland Joffé	United Kingdom
1987	Under the Sun of Satan §	Sous le soleil de Satan	Maurice Pialat	France
1988	Pelle the Conqueror	Pelle erobreren	Bille August	Denmark
1989	Sex, Lies, and Videotape		Steven Soderbergh	United States
1990	Wild at Heart		David Lynch	United States
1991	Barton Fink §		Coen brothers	United States
1992	The Best Intentions	Den goda viljan	Bille August	Denmark
1993	Farewell My Concubine	Bàwáng bié jī / 霸王別姬	Chen Kaige	China*
	The Piano		Jane Campion	New Zealand*
1994	Pulp Fiction		Quentin Tarantino	United States
1995	Underground	Podzemlje / Подземље	Emir Kusturica	Serbia and Montenegro*
1996	Secrets & Lies		Mike Leigh	United Kingdom
1997	Taste of Cherry	Ta'm-e gīlās / طعم گيلاس	Abbas Kiarostami	Iran*
	The Eel	Unagi / うなぎ	Shohei Imamura	Japan
1998	Eternity and a Day §	Mia aio̱nióti̱ta kai mia méra / Μια αιωνιότητα και μια μέρα	Theodoros Angelopoulos	Greece
1999	Rosetta §		Jean-Pierre Dardenne and Luc Dardenne	Belgium*
2000	Dancer in the Dark		Lars von Trier	Denmark
2001	The Son's Room	La stanza del figlio	Nanni Moretti	Italy
2002	The Pianist	Pianista	Roman Polanski	France  Poland
2003	Elephant		Gus Van Sant	United States
2004	Fahrenheit 9/11		Michael Moore	United States
2005	The Child	L'enfant	Jean-Pierre Dardenne and Luc Dardenne	Belgium
2006	The Wind That Shakes the Barley §		Ken Loach	United Kingdom
2007	4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days	4 luni, 3 săptămâni şi 2 zile	Cristian Mungiu	Romania*
2008	The Class §	Entre les murs	Laurent Cantet	France
2009	The White Ribbon	Das weiße Band, Eine deutsche Kindergeschichte	Michael Haneke	Austria*
2010	Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives	Lung Bunmi Raluek Chat / ลุงบุญมีระลึกชาติ	Apichatpong Weerasethakul	Thailand*
2011	The Tree of Life		Terrence Malick	United States
2012	Amour		Michael Haneke	Austria
2013	Blue Is the Warmest Colour §	La Vie d'Adèle: Chapitres 1 et 2	Abdellatif Kechiche	France  Tunisia*
2014	Winter Sleep	Kış Uykusu	Nuri Bilge Ceylan	Turkey
2015	Dheepan		Jacques Audiard	France

* _{denotes first win}
§ _{denotes unanimous win}

Multiple award winners

• Alf Sjöberg (1946, 1951)
• Francis Ford Coppola (1974, 1979)
• Bille August (1988, 1992)
• Emir Kusturica (1985, 1995)
• Shohei Imamura (1983, 1997)
• Luc and Jean-Pierre Dardenne (1999, 2005)
• Michael Haneke (2009, 2012)

Honorary Palme d'Or

In 2002 the festival began to sporadically award a non-competitive Honorary Palme d'Or to directors who had achieved a notable body of work but who had never won a competitive Palme d'Or. In 2011 the festival announced that the award would be given out annually, however plans for this fell through and it was not awarded again until four years later in 2015.^[9] American director Woody Allen was the inaugural recipient while pioneering French filmmaker Agnès Varda was the first woman to receive the award in 2015.^[10][11]

Year	Director	Nationality of Director
2002	Woody Allen	United States
2009	Clint Eastwood	United States
2011	Bernardo Bertolucci	Italy
2015	Agnès Varda	France

See also

• Golden Bear, the highest prize awarded at the Berlin Film Festival
• Golden Lion, the highest prize awarded at the Venice Film Festival

References

1. "A brief history of the Palme d'or - Festival de Cannes 2013 (International Film Festival)". Festival-cannes.com.
2. "Awards at Cannes Film Festival: Golden Palm". The Internet Movie Database. 2008. Retrieved 2008-05-28.
3. "Awards at Cannes Film Festival: Grand Prize of the Festival". The Internet Movie Database. 2008. Retrieved 2008-05-28.
4. "A Brief History of the Palme d'Or". Festival de Cannes. 2008. Retrieved 2008-05-28.
5. "Submit a film : Rules & Regulations 2014 - Festival de Cannes 2013 (International Film Festival)". Festival-cannes.fr.
6. "Conference of the Jury of 66th Festival de Cannes". Festival de Cannes. 2013. Retrieved 2013-05-27.
7. "A brief history of the Palme d'Or - Festival de Cannes 2013 (International Film Festival)". Festival-cannes.com.
8. Xan Brooks (25 May 2014). "Cannes festival ready for shut-eye after Winter Sleep wins Palme d'Or". The Guardian. Guardian News and Media Limited. Retrieved 1 June 2014.
9. "A Honorary Palme at the opening ceremony of the Festival de Cannes". Retrieved 3 September 2015.
10. "Director Agnes Varda to receive honorary Palme d'Or". Retrieved 3 September 2015.
11. "AGNÈS VARDA TO RECEIVE HONORARY PALME D'OR". Retrieved 3 September 2015.

External links

• Palme d'Or Winners, 1976 to present, by gross box-office
• Festival-cannes.com
• Cannes Film Festival IMDB